Streetsblog

Thursday’s Headlines From Around the Nation

Why not take this opportunity to electrify the Postal Service fleet? Click here for that story and more.

By Blake Aued

12:01 AM EDT on April 23, 2020

Traffic is down two-thirds nationally, but empty roads mean that some states are facing a spike in speeding drivers. (Stateline)
Friend of Streetsblog David Roberts suggests that electrifying the U.S. Postal Service fleet would be a great coronavirus stimulus project, reducing air and noise pollution while creating jobs. (Vox)
A debunked-by-Streetsblog study about New York City transit’s role in spreading coronavirus put the subway smack in the middle of the culture wars. (City Lab)
Uber and Lyft drivers who’ve lost income to coronavirus are accusing the companies of slow-walking unemployment benefits. (The Hill)
CleanTechnica takes a crack at the “slow streets” story. It’s happening in Oakland, Boston, Minneapolis and elsewhere — but not South Florida, where the Miami Herald reports that many condo- and apartment-dwellers have nowhere to go outside in their neighborhoods, and in neighborhoods that do have space, residents are angry about the influx of people.
Milan is one of Europe’s most-polluted cities, and one of the hardest-hit by COVID-19. It has a plan to rapidly expand biking and walking space on city streets as quarantine measures are lifted. (The Guardian)
King County Metro buses have started passing up stops when a certain number of people are onboard to help maintain social distancing. (Seattle Times)
Connecticut rediscovered transit in the past decade, but loss of revenue from the coronavirus pandemic could put the brakes on progress. (Mirror)
The first two stations of Bay Area Rapid Transit’s expansion into Santa Clara County could open this summer. (East Bay Times)
Houston’s stay-at-home order has delayed testing on a new bus rapid transit line until May. (Chronicle)
On Earth Day, Vice tells the oral history of how Manhattan residents turned a small vacant lot into a pocket park and community garden in the early 1990s. And Charles Komanoff had his own recollection for Streetsblog NYC.
This is good for a laugh: Nobody’s driving, but Forbes still thinks parking lots are a great investment.